What can I do with a politics degree?
If you’ve come to the end of your politics degree and have decided that you don’t want a graduate job in politics, there are many other career paths you could take.
Politics students have a bunch of skills that can very useful to future employers. They are very enthusiastic about their subject, opinionated and typically hardworking. The seminar room is often a very lively place.
The kind of skills you will have developed include:
- gathering information, assessing and interpreting it
- leading and participating in discussions and groups
- organising workloads and working to deadlines
- developing opinions and ideas
- essay writing, presentation and analytical skills
- reading pages of text and picking out the essential points
- stating a case
- solving problems
- assimilating facts
- expressing yourself clearly (certainly in writing, and probably in person too)
Fresh out of university, there are plenty of options – public services, the Civil Service and local government, non-governmental organisation (NGO) work, and research.
Even with a minimum amount of training, many organisations are looking for enthusiastic graduates fresh from university. Potential career paths could include:
- banking
- business
- journalism
- chartered accountant
- technical writer
- industrial buyer retail buyer
- distribution or logistics manager
- marketing executive
- solicitor
There are plenty of people who have graduated with a politics degree without making it their life’s work. Consider the following celebrities:
- Elisabeth Shue
- Harry Enfield
- Mia Hamm
- Alec Baldwin
- Jerry Springer
- Anne Rice